I have this Victa 19in Commando Tornado chassis with a B&S Quattro 4 stroke. I've kept the chassis pretty much rust free, but the Briggs is shot. Burning oil and not sounding good at all. On its last legs for sure.
I am tempted to find another Victa with a Briggs on FB Marketplace and do a transplant. However, my question is - do all B&S engines fitted to different Victa chassis (steel, cast alloy etc) have the same shaft size?
Or, do I need to find specifically another Tornado 19in chassis with a good running Briggs and do the swap?
I'm not the most experienced in this area, and I'm sure that Max, or Norm et.al. will enhance the advice that I'm about to offer.
But, before you do anything, Remove the rubber grommet from the spark plug completely.
Then disassemble the air filter and give the sponge rubber a good clean and wash it well with De-grease, e,g,
After that, drain out all the petrol, then all the existing oil out of the engine, weather it be by the sump bolt underneath the chassis, or tilt the mower on it's side, using the open oil aperture.
Remove the existing spark plug, note it's number [which will be written on it], and replace it with a new identical one.
Once you've got this far, replace your engine oil, e.g. 30w. 40 or whatever you use, but do not overfill it, as per the dipstick indicator.
Then, once you have done all this, refill your petrol tank, and re-attach the rubber grommet to your newly insatalled plug, give it the customary three push prime, and hopefully you'll be in business.
As I said, there are more qualified mentors here than me, that can help you, but if I was in your position, the above is what I would do,,,
I hope this helps,
Regards,
mice-elf
Last edited by mice_elf; 28/11/2508:51 PM. Reason: Typo
Gday mrkhemlami, Yes the simple answer is yes the Briggs have the same shaft lengths, except some of the early sidepulls, but they don't come up too often these days
Probably a 7/8 PTO shaft, I think common size for the length is around 50 mm ,62 mm and 70 mm , could be a 70 mm.
The easiest way would be to measure the PTO shaft ,usually you can just look at the crank underneath the mower and you can tell if the replacement motor is the same length PTO.
I would think a Rover or Masport rear discharge mower with a Briggs should be the same length,
All the traditional Victa chassis and the tornados use the 50mm shaft. Having said that you can use the longer shaft motor off a masport or rover but you'll need to space the motor up 20mm
The 2-inch shaft length depends on the motor used on the base. As you know, if you use a 2-inch shaft on an old Victa base with a Sprint motor (Briggs), the petrol tank can hit the discharge ramp on the base. This is why older mowers had the motors turned with the exhaust facing the operator—so the tank wouldn’t interfere with the base. Otherwise, you would need a longer crank and a spacer to lift the motor, then rotate it so the tank is on the right side.
I forgot I picked up a Tornado 4 stroke the other day ,it's 70 mm the crank length.
They didn't need to lift the engine on a Tornado for the tank to clear the discharge ramp, as the discharge ramp is lower on the Tornado compared to other Victa bases. This provided enough clearance for the tank when using the Sprint-type motor.
